Thank´s for the answer. But in the moment it is not a question of money but if it makes any sense. If Bryce can not more use as 4 GB RAM, then it´s better to take a SSD or a other CPU.
But the CPU I7 3770 K is a little problem for me to. Some say this CPU is slower as the I5 2500 K. And so I would rather decide for a good SSD.

Thank´s for the answer. But in the moment it is not a question of money but if it makes any sense. If Bryce can not more use as 4 GB RAM, then it´s better to take a SSD or a other CPU.
But the CPU I7 3770 K is a little problem for me to. Some say this CPU is slower as the I5 2500 K. And so I would rather decide for a good SSD.

Well like I said, I’m not that well versed in the differences between the i5 and i7 but assuming what you said is correct then I would agree that the SSD is the better choice of the two.

I have no idea how much difference it makes with Bryce itself, however when I was making my purchase for only a few dollars more it was recommended to get the W7Pro as it handles [? if that’s the correct term] more memory than the regular W7. In other words, it was possible to add more memory to the computer than the OS could use ... but Pro could make it all usable. It works beautifully, haven’t even used the LAA [so far] for Bryce ‘cause everything is quite fast.

I have no idea how much difference it makes with Bryce itself, however when I was making my purchase for only a few dollars more it was recommended to get the W7Pro as it handles [? if that’s the correct term] more memory than the regular W7. In other words, it was possible to add more memory to the computer than the OS could use ... but Pro could make it all usable. It works beautifully, haven’t even used the LAA [so far] for Bryce ‘cause everything is quite fast.

Anything above 4GB’s really makes little difference to Bryce since Bryce without the LAA tool can only access 2GB’s and with the LAA tool approx. 3.5GB’s. Now if all one had was 4GB’s then more memory might still be helpful if one was planning on running a bunch of other programs at the same time as when they were running Bryce. Since the OP has 8GB’s already I doubt jumping up to 16GB’s is going to make that much difference. Typically people who actually need that much memory are more intimately aware of what adding hardware can do for them and as such aren’t likely to be asking the kinds of questions the OP did.

I have bought from a friend a small (64 GB) SSD drive and have the Windows installed on it. As you can see in the screenshot, the window power index is now higher than before (5,9—> 7,2). Windows starts very fast (ca. 10 seconds). Other programs start now even faster, with one exception: Bryce. On render times, nothing has changed.

I have bought from a friend a small (64 GB) SSD drive and have the Windows installed on it. As you can see in the screenshot, the window power index is now higher than before (5,9—> 7,2). Windows starts very fast (ca. 10 seconds). Other programs start now even faster, with one exception: Bryce. On render times, nothing has changed.

I believe that is due to the fact that everything in Bryce is done in memory. If so then the only way to speed up bryce would be if your memory wasn’t the fastest your system supports and you replace it with the fastest memory your system supports or you build a faster system.

I have no idea how much difference it makes with Bryce itself, however when I was making my purchase for only a few dollars more it was recommended to get the W7Pro as it handles [? if that’s the correct term] more memory than the regular W7. In other words, it was possible to add more memory to the computer than the OS could use ... but Pro could make it all usable. It works beautifully, haven’t even used the LAA [so far] for Bryce ‘cause everything is quite fast.

Anything above 4GB’s really makes little difference to Bryce since Bryce without the LAA tool can only access 2GB’s and with the LAA tool approx. 3.5GB’s. Now if all one had was 4GB’s then more memory might still be helpful if one was planning on running a bunch of other programs at the same time as when they were running Bryce. Since the OP has 8GB’s already I doubt jumping up to 16GB’s is going to make that much difference. Typically people who actually need that much memory are more intimately aware of what adding hardware can do for them and as such aren’t likely to be asking the kinds of questions the OP did.

I am the OP. Thread has gone off abit. Others are inquiring in here as well, which is fine by me.

Now i have upgradet my system with 16 GB RAM and a 240 GB SSD drive. The performance index from my system you can see in the picture. As you can see, the SSD drive is with 7,9 the strongest component in my system, the RAM the next. Render times have changed nowhere. The workflow is now everywhere great. The SSD ist from OCZ.

Might be an interesting experiment, if you have masses of RAM, to try running multiple Bryce Lightening render sessions in Windows as Virtual Machines ... the outcome really will depend on if the rendering on your PC is RAM limited or CPU limited. You can expect to see a 5-10% hit on performance per VM due to the virtualisation overhead, but if you have 8Gb upwards of RAM then the effective doubling of CPU utilisation may net an overall 50-80% gain in overal rendering speed if you have a powerful enough CPU and memory bandwidth.

Now i have upgradet my system with 16 GB RAM and a 240 GB SSD drive. The performance index from my system you can see in the picture. As you can see, the SSD drive is with 7,9 the strongest component in my system, the RAM the next. Render times have changed nowhere. The workflow is now everywhere great.

That’s a fine system, and although the larger RAM and SSD will not improve Bryce render speeds they will bring great benefit to your computing experience overall.

Without making big changes to hardware (motherboard, CPU, RAM) your remaining method of improving Bryce render speed is to overclock your CPU (and maybe your motherboard and RAM too, depending on which method used). And the 2500K is a superb overclocker (much better than the 3770K). The only hardware you will need is a good CPU cooler. Other than that you need research and caution.

The web is loaded with information on overclocking the 2500K, and you can take your time to learn before even considering the idea. A moderate overclock of this chip is very safe and will bring a worthwhile render speed improvement, for little cost.

Separately, thinking “bang for bucks” and purpose ... if one has a good solid fast machine as a workstation then what might one do to improve render performance. With Bryce’s memory limits, the answer is probably not to buy a modern pricey CPU with very large addressing, but maybe instead smaller machines using much cheaper N-1 technology CPUs. Doing a quick Google for bargain PCs, I found loads with decent CPUs, 4Gb RAM and cheap as chips prices so much that one could get 3 of them for the price of a decent modern desktop, e.g.

Without making big changes to hardware (motherboard, CPU, RAM) your remaining method of improving Bryce render speed is to overclock your CPU (and maybe your motherboard and RAM too, depending on which method used). And the 2500K is a superb overclocker (much better than the 3770K). The only hardware you will need is a good CPU cooler. Other than that you need research and caution.

Thank you very much for this tip, but i dont want overclock my CPU or other components. I love my new PC and it took a long time until I could buy a new and modern computer, because my dog was very sick and has cost me a fortune (3000 € (i love my dog)) and I do not know what else is everything coming. I am now very happy with my new computer.

Thank you very much for this tip, but i dont want overclock my CPU or other components.

That’s a perfectly reasonable and sensible approach for a prized possession bought at considerable cost.

Still, overclocking might be worth considering in a couple of years when the computer is less modern and less valuable. It will boost the system closer to the performance of the mainstream CPUs of 2014/15, and be much less financially risky.

...before I had one of the slowest computer. Q 8300, nvidia 7300 and 2 GB DDR 2 800 RAM-memory.

Your old, slow computer had a faster processor than my current machine with its Q6600. On the rare occasions when I can give Bryce a good workout, I just overclock the system to deal with long renders. Upping the speed from 2.4Ghz to a moderate 3.2 Ghz gives a Windows result as shown in the March 2010 screen capture below. Not too bad for free, and enough for my light use nowadays.

It is good to be in a happy computing and Bryceing place. To keep yourself there, don’t forget to backup your files!